Recursive co-kriging model for design of computer experiments with multiple levels of fidelity

Abstract

We consider in this paper the problem of building a fast-running approximation—also called surrogate model—of a complex computer code. The co-kriging based surrogate model is a promising tool to build such an approximation when the complex computer code can be run at different levels of accuracy. We present here an original approach to perform a multi-fidelity co-kriging model which is based on a recursive formulation. We prove that the predictive mean and the variance of the presented approach are identical to the ones of the original co-kriging model. However, our new approach allows to obtain original results. First, closed-form formulas for the universal co-kriging predictive mean and variance are given. Second, a fast cross-validation procedure for the multi-fidelity co-kriging model is introduced. Finally, the proposed approach has a reduced computational complexity compared to the previous one. The multi-fidelity model is successfully applied to emulate a hydrodynamic simulator.